Kathmandu, July 28

The oldest hospital of the country, Bir Hospital marked its 130th anniversary amidst a programme organised on its premises today.

Addressing the event Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Upendra Yadav instructed the hospital staffers to comply with medical ethics. “Why is it that medical equipment at private hospitals last for long time and function effectively but they often dysfunction at this hospital?” questioned the minister. He warned that staffers involved in damaging medical equipment would have to face stern action. Government would be compelled to go for public private partnership model in operating the hospital if its staffers did not mend their ways, according to the minister.

Minister Yadav also suggested the management to extend its health services in other parts of the city to minimise crowd in the hospital. The hospital needed to adopt digital system so that the patients could make online appointments, and also could get their medical reports online. It would save time of the patients and help them to obtain accurate information, according to Minister Yadav.

Ram Prasad Thapaliya, secretary at the Health Ministry said that the hospital needed to focus on effective system for quality service delivery. The hospital has been facing manpower crunch. It has plans to extend health care services on paediatrics, psychiatric, maternity and ophthalmology sectors in the near future. It also has plans for providing medical education from Duwakot.

It aims to add 20 more beds to existing 23 beds in its intensive care unit. The hospital is constructing a new building on its premises with capacity of 750-beds, said Kedar Century, director of the hospital. A Manual for Infection Prevention and Control was also launched amidst the programme. Minister Yadav said that the manual would be used as a guideline in all health centres across the country.

Bir Hospital was established in 1889 by the then prime minister Bir Shamsher Jung Bahadur Rana. Back then, the hospital only had seven beds and five staffers. The hospital now has 460 beds and provides more than 80 types of health services. A report published by the hospital shows that a total of 422,801 people benefited from health services offered by the hospital in the fiscal  2018-19.